To comment on Kamala Harris's convention-closing speech, CNN This Morning stacked its panel today with three Democrats -- four, if you count host Kasie Hunt -- to lone Republican Scott Jennings.
And the lib majority took full advantage, raving over Harris' performance. Thus, former Biden comms director Kate Bedingfield claimed that Kamala "had a high bar to clear, and she cleared it." In reality, the bar Harris had to clear to win praise from Bedingfield could be measured in microns.
Democrat Bakari Sellers assured us that Harris put in "a flawless performance."
Later, he employed violent imagery against Trump, claiming that whereas Democrats had previously been treating Trump as a nemesis with "a knife to the throat of democracy," at the convention, they mocked him as a buffoon and a bumbling idiot. Host Kasie Hunt "helpfully" chipped in, quoting Michelle Obama to the effect that Trump is "small and selfish."
Scott Jennings gave Harris and the Dems their due, acknowledging that the convention was effective, that Harris delivered at the podium, and came across as a plausible and reasonable person. But he made the telling point that Harris failed to take any responsibility for her job as Vice President, or express any humility for the Biden-Harris failures on the economy or the border. Let's add the media doesn't tend to assign her any responsibility.
When Bedingfield tried to push back, Jennings quipped, "You're asking the independent voters to all get collective amnesia and not remember all of the actions, or inactions, that Biden-Harris did or didn't do for three-and-a-half years."
Former eight-year Obama official Elliot Williams took the praise of Harris to absurd heights, crowning Kamala a born-again Iron Lady. Referring to Harris's remarks on foreign policy, Williams said:
"They had a woman standing on stage saying, this is a paraphrase, in the battle between U.S. and tyranny, I know where I stand and where the USA belongs. That is the rhetoric—that's Margaret Thatcher, dude."
Elliot's Harris hyperbole was so preposterous that even the Kamala-loving panel burst into laughter! It's fun stretching metaphors like Laffy Taffy!
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
8/23/24
6:02 am EDTKATE BEDINGFIELD: It was a huge night for Vice President Harris. I mean, I think she had a high bar to clear, and she cleared it . . . But I also think she just did a terrific job introducing herself, selling herself, in a moment that's not always easy to do that.
. . .
BAKARI SELLERS: What I saw was flawless execution.
. . .
SCOTT JENNINGS: I think the convention for Democrats was effective. I mean, they wanted to come out of here feeling like they had a chance to win. They didn't have a chance to win with Biden. Now they have a chance to win with Harris. So that was mission accomplished on that front.
I think on the speech, look, she's gotten much better behind a podium. She used to not be all that great at this. She's an improving person on that front. She delivered from behind a podium last night. She's been doing that since she got into the race. So that was also another box checked. She seemed plausible. The speech, I agree with Kate. It did portray her as someone who sounded like a reasonable person.
Now, what she did not do was take any amount of responsibility for her current job, which is Vice President of the United States for the last three-and-a-half years under Joe Biden. It was not an ounce of humility about the inflation gripping the country. She talked about immigration without talking about all the things that happened right up until this border bill that they have hung all their hats on over at the Biden White House.
So to me, where the Republicans are going to be headed is, all the pablum, all the platitudes, all that aside, you cannot leave the same people in charge if you believe the country's on the wrong track, if you believe they made all the mistakes on the economy and on immigration, you cannot leave the same people in charge that have run the country off into the ditch. Until she comes up with a good answer for that, which I suspect will have to be litigated at the debate on September 10th, Donald Trump is still in a very good place.
. . .
BEDINGFIELD: The way she addressed these things last night was smart. I mean, she didn't, you're right, she didn't address them in the way that you, as a Republican strategist, would like to see her address them, but she did talk about immigration, and she said, hey, Donald Trump blew up our best option to make progress on this issue. So if you're an independent voter and you're trying to sort out left from right in this race you say, oh, well, that seems like actually she's making a good point here. Like, there's, it's not that she didn't address these issues. It's that she actually took them on in a way that was smart and on the offensive.
JENNINGS: Well, you're asking the independent voters to all get collective amnesia and not remember all of the actions, or inactions, that Biden-Harris did or didn't do for three-and-a-half years leading up to the political fight over the border bill. The reality is, everybody believes this administration made the border weaker. This legislative thing is a political argument. And you're asking people to forget that she had the job.
. . .
SELLERS: I think that one of the things that the Democratic party did this week, that was actually so well done, was they took away this kind of nemesis feel that Donald Trump had, like he had a knife to the throat of democracy. And instead, they just castigated him as this buffoon, right? He is this bumbling kind of idiot.
KASIE HUNT: He was small and selfish -- Michelle Obama painted him.
. . .
ELLIOT WILLIAMS: You had a woman standing on stage saying, and this is a paraphrase, in the battle between us and tyranny, I know where I stand and where the USA belongs. That is the rhetoric, that's Margaret Thatcher, dude. [Laughter from panel]
I mean, that's powerful rhetoric in an arena where people were chanting USA, USA. Something you don't hear at Democratic rallies a lot, and waving these flags. It was sort of shocking to see.
BEDINGFIELD: At a moment where there is a question about whether the Republican nominee, if he becomes president again, stands on the side of democracy or tyranny. That's another mind-blowing --
JENNINGS: Oh, come on.
